INTRODUCTION

FOR THE
PAST one hundred years, using more and more sophisticated tools,
research has been conducted into the process of remembering,
but almost nothing has been done in the way of research into
the process of forgetting. In current textbooks on psychology
one is virtually certain to find in the subject index many pages
or even whole chapters devoted to the faculty of memory. The
Handbook of Experimental Psychology, edited by Stevens,
is a case in point. It refers to only two pages on the subject
of forgetting. A History of Experimental Psychology written
by Boring follows the same pattern. The process of forgetting
is itself almost forgotten, as though it were an area not worthy
of research. Since this Paper was first issued, a single report
has appeared in Science dealing with this very subject
under the title. "Forgetting: Trace Erosion or Retrieval
Failure?" The research was done by Richard M. Shiffrin of
the Psychology Department in Indiana University. (1)
It might be thought that the subject
would be automatically covered by treating adequately the subject
of memory. We have a memory, but apparently we do not have a
"forgetory"! In school we spend years trying to train
the memory, but after we leave school -- if the truth were known
-- we probably spend even more time trying to forget, not trying
to forget what we have learned in school but trying to forget
the increasing burden of painful memories, of unkind thoughts,
foolish utterances, selfish acts, ignominious defeats, and sheer
wickedness which increasingly spoil the idealistic image of ourselves
and our potential with which we started out after graduation.
We find ourselves in need of a
forgetory, not a memory. Our only recourse is to resort to an
occupation which is euphemistically termed "recreation,"
taking this word to include all forms of entertainment. A great
deal of our time, perhaps far more than we are normally aware

1. See Science, vol.168, 1970),p.1601-1603.

pg.2 of 5

of, is spent in mild
and not so mild forms of escapism. After an unpleasant event
or experience we deliberately try to displace the recollection
of it. Indeed, the poignancy of life is bound up, all too often,
in things which we have no difficulty whatever in remembering,
things which we wish we could forget. The act of memorizing something
is a deliberate attempt to imprint it on the mind indelibly and
recoverably. And on this process we have a great deal
of experimental data. But the act of forgetting is entirely different,
because any attempt to erase the message only reinforces the
memory of it still further.
Failing any technique for erasing
memory comparable to the techniques we use for imprinting it,
we turn to diversion as the only escape: to sleep, to food, to
drugs, to displacement stimuli such as noise, the excitement
of sports, or the distraction of novels or movies -- or even
cocktail parties. We are not erasing: we are merely drowning
out. And experience shows that these are not effective techniques,
for in the long run these escapes still leave an unwanted residue,
as Hamlet said: "To sleep? Perchance to dream! Ah, there's
the rub."
Some countries, for historical
reasons, seem to attempt deliberately to take the edge off painful
memory by self-flagellation in various forms. The things that
a man would like to forget -- more often than not the things
for which he blames himself -- he seeks to erase by self-punishment.
There is evidence that the Russian "national character,"
even in modern times, still reflects this method of dealing with
a basic problem of human experience, in much the same way that
the characters in the novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoi did. The
Russian feels he can best obliterate the past by punishing himself
for it.
The erasure of memory, the assurance
that things will be forgotten, is a fundamental component
of the principle of Divine forgiveness. It is written large in
the Old and New Testament: indeed, it is the fundamental difference
between the sacrificial systems of these two Covenants. The Old
Testament sacrificial system, as Hebrews 10:3 shows very clearly,
was bound up by the concept of remembrance: "But in those
sacrifices there is a remembrance again madeof sins every
year." By contrast Hebrews 8:10-12 says: "For this
is the covenant I will make. . . . I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will
I remember no more." That this Old Testament principle was
to be superseded by a New Testament principle is reflected in
the Old Testament prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. For example,
Isaiah 43:25 reads: "I, evenI, am He that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins." And Jeremiah 31:34 reads, "And they shall
teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the LORD:
for they shall

pg.3
of 5

all know me, from the
least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD, for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Now it seems to me to be self-evident
that the kind of Divine forgiveness that is spoken of here is
quite different from human forgiveness, no matter how complete
and sincere human forgiveness may be: for in the very nature
of the case we may forgive, but we cannot, by a similar
act of will, forget. But if God is going to forgive it
must follow inevitably that He will forget. And if He will forget,
it follows that we too shall forget, for if we were ever to remember
our sins -- were it but for a moment -- it could not help but
bring them to the Lord's memory also, since He knows our thoughts
afar off and nothing is hid from Him.
God's forgiveness includes a "blotting
out," a total and entire expunging from the record. But
what is the nature of this record? Experiments are tending to
show increasingly that everything of which we have had conscious
awareness is somehow filed away where it may become inaccessible
to voluntary recall, but is apparently indelibly recorded nevertheless.
Is it possible that these indelible records constitute the books
which are to be opened in the time of Judgment as revealed in
Revelation 20:12? Is it possible that the Judgment is essentially
a process of complete recall, of being exposed to, faced with,
and called upon to evaluate in the light of the life of Jesus
Christ all the innermost thoughts and schemes and selfish choices
of our whole life? Would not this constitute a judgment utterly
and completely fair? As we shall see, Penfield's experiments
indicate the strange fact that even now segments of memory can
be recovered so completely that the experience is re-lived
in full. Moreover, while this is going on, the individual can
stand aside objectively and talk about it. Such, then, is the
potential of memory.
But what about forgetting? Perhaps
this is where the uniqueness of God's forgiving as opposed to
man's forgiving, enters into the picture: for it may be that
when God forgives, the greater part of the pages of these books
are entirely removed, obliterated, rendered as though they had
never been, placed absolutely beyond recall either by ourselves
or by God.
Sometimes I wonder whether there
is more going on in our subconscious than even Freud or Jung
were aware of. One almost has the impression, upon occasion,
that the determination to reduce life to the terms of physics
and chemistry, so that mind comes to be equated with brain, and
thought with chemical reaction, is a desperate attempt of the
subconscious in man to persuade himself that with the destruction

pg.4
of 5

of his body will go also
the destruction of mind -- and with it the filing cabinet of
memory which might be opened to judge him. It is a kind of psychological
suicide justified on rational grounds. The plea is that the process
of thought, the experience of consciousness, the faculty of memory
-- in short, mind -- is nothing more than a physicochemical something
in which electric currents produce a series of stimuli in highly
complex ways, which can somehow repeat themselves so long as
the organ, the brain, functions. Destroy the brain and you destroy
the mind. This is "forgetting" carried to perfection.
This is escaping any possibility of a Judgment to come by the
simple process of annihilation.
It is quite clear from Scripture
that no escape by such a means is possible. It is important to
say "by such a means," for there is a way of escape;
but it is the way of God's method of forgiveness, a forgiveness
which somehow reaches down into the area which we have been pleased
to a large extent to ignore, the area of what is out of reach
of our conscious minds but "filed away" in our subconscious.
We can, therapeutically, by various means recall some
of that which we had thought was totally forgotten, and in some
cases the recalling enables us now and then to undertake some
corrective measures. But we have not blotted it out. Indeed,
in the long run, we do precisely the opposite; we remember more
clearly than ever.
What follows is an attempt to explore
some of the scientific evidence which, it seems to me, is accumulating
daily to show that mind cannot be equated with brain; that Brain
is essential for the genesis of the mind, but that thereafter
(once generated) mind may somehow have an independent existence
in its own right. What we do not have at the present time is
the same kind of data to guide us on ways of forgetting, on
means whereby mind can be purged of unwanted memories. All we
can do at present is to note how extraordinarily persistent memory
is, even in animals, and how little it seems to be affected by
the destruction or mutilation of the brain with which it is supposed
to be equated. It may be that some reader with psychological
training and insight will initiate a program of research to throw
light on the mechanism whereby God, through forgiveness, can
somehow expunge from this filing cabinet so very strangely related
to the organ of brain, those records and only those records
which tell of thoughts or deeds that we have come to equate with
an evil conscience. It is clear from Scripture that He does not
simply wipe the mind clean (like a slate), but operates upon
it selectively, so that we are able to forget those things in
which we have offended, but do not fail to remember the multitude
of His mercies (Psalm 106:7).